Cosmetic compositions such as foundations and concealers have long been used to hide perceived imperfections of the skin and/or to improve the aesthetic appearance of a user. Foundations are generally intended to be applied to a person's face to create an even, uniform complexion and/or to change the skin tone, whereas concealers are commonly applied to a variety of different areas of the body (e.g., neck, hands, arms, legs, and torso). Thus, foundations and concealers often have different formulation requirements. For example, concealers are generally known to be more heavily pigmented than foundations.
Conventional cosmetic foundations are typically sold in a liquid, semi-liquid or cream, or powder form. The powder variety may include ingredients such as colorants (e.g., pigments, dyes, and lakes), bulking agents, binders, actives and other optional ingredients. Powder type foundations may be less complex to manufacture and may avoid some of the drawbacks of liquid foundations with regard to how they feel when applied and/or worn. But powder-type foundations may be perceived as having a shorter useful life than the liquid-type foundations (i.e., do not provide the desired cosmetic benefit for as long) and/or are more susceptible to undesirable transfer from the skin to another surface. This is due to the fact that powder-type foundation products are essentially individual solid particles lying on the skin surface with little to prevent them from being rubbed or wiped away.
Liquid-type and semi-liquid-type (e.g., creamy compact and solid emulsion) foundations may include ingredients such as tackifiers, colorants, rheology modifiers, solidifiers, surfactants, and actives disposed in a suitable carrier fluid. The carrier fluid of a liquid- or semi-liquid-type foundation typically includes a substantial amount of volatile components that evaporate from the skin during and shortly after application. It is not uncommon for conventional liquid and semi-liquid foundations to include more than 40% by weight of volatile components. After the foundation is applied to the face, the volatile components evaporate leaving the solid particles (including pigments, waxes, binders, tackifiers) distributed on the surface of the skin. To help bind the individual particles to the surface of the skin, “film-formers” are sometimes added to the foundation composition. When present at high enough levels, certain film-formers can form a continuous film on the skin, resulting in an undesirable dry and/or tight feeling. Thus, film-formers are generally included in conventional foundations at low levels (<10 wt %) to minimize any undesirable feel characteristics related to the use of the film-formers.
Conventional liquid or semi-liquid foundation compositions may also include non-volatile fluids (e.g., hydrocarbon oil, silicone oil, polyols), which help to provide a suitable fluid matrix into which some or all of the other ingredients in the foundation can be mixed. However, the non-volatile carrier fluids may cause the foundation to have a “greasy” feel when applied and/or worn, which some users may find to be particularly undesirable on their face. In order to provide a more desirable feel when the foundation is applied and/or worn, liquid foundations may be formulated as emulsions (e.g., water-in-oil or oil-in-water). The aqueous phase of the emulsion helps reduce the oily feel when the foundation is applied and/or worn. While the emulsion may improve the feel characteristics of the foundation, making an emulsion may also require additional equipment and/or process steps as compared to a single phase composition, which can increase the overall manufacturing cost and complexity. In addition, emulsions are commonly stabilized by using amphiphilic molecules (emulsifiers, surfactants). But the amphiphilic material provides the foundation with the ability to be chemically compatible with both hydrophobic and hydrophilic fluids (e.g. water, oil, sebum), which may reduce the useful lifespan of the foundation. Throughout the course of the day, the foundation is exposed to sebum (produced by the skin), moisture (sweat, tears, humidity, rain, washing) and oils (skin care products, other cosmetic products). As such, conventional liquid and semi-liquid foundations are not suited for staying on the skin for longer than 1 day.
Conventional concealers may include some of the same ingredients as foundations, but they are generally recognized as providing different cosmetic benefits and are intended to be used for different purposes. In particular, concealers are intended to be applied to a relatively small area of skin that has a particularly undesirable blemish (e.g., dark circles under the eyes, bruises, moles, hyper-/hypo-pigmented areas of the skin, scars, tattoos). Thus, concealers typically include higher pigment levels than foundations to help ensure sufficient coverage of the unsightly blemish. In addition, since a concealer is typically only applied to small areas of skin as opposed to being applied to the entire face, a level of formulation flexibility may available for a concealer that is unavailable for liquid foundations. For example, there may be more opportunity to formulate a concealer as a single phase composition. Further, it may be possible to include ingredients in a concealer that undesirably impact the way the concealer feels when applied and/or worn (e.g., ingredients that make the concealer harder to spread or add tackiness), which would be unacceptable in a foundation. Additionally it is possible to utilize much higher percentages of materials like tackifiers or film-formers that create a continuous film on the skin since the tight feeling they can cause is not a concern when applied to small surface areas.
One drawback shared by conventional concealers and foundations is that they may be unintentionally transferred to other surfaces (e.g., clothes, furniture, hair, and other areas of the body). Such transfers may result in clothing, furniture or other surfaces being soiled with makeup, and/or it may the effective life of the makeup. A variety of mechanisms may contribute to the undesired transfer of makeup from the skin. For example, sebum or other waxy/oily substances found on the skin can impede the ability of a foundation or concealer to adhere to the skin. In some instances, rubbing against a surface may abrade the concealer or foundation from the skin. Regardless of the mechanism of transfer, the possibility that it will occur may cause some consumers to avoid purchasing and/or using cosmetic foundations altogether. The reduced effective life of a cosmetic product may be especially problematic for a user of a concealer, since the blemish(es) covered by the concealer are often perceived as being particularly unsightly.
In order to overcome the drawback of undesirable transfer and/or to increase the effective life of a concealer or foundation, “long-wear” or “transfer-free” products are known. However, even conventional long-wear or transfer-free products may not provide a suitable level of coverage and/or beauty enhancement for more than 24 hours or provide suitable resistance to the abrasion encountered by skin during typical daily activities. For example, it is well known that many women shave their legs, but a conventional concealer that is applied to legs may not provide a suitable level of cosmetic benefit following a shaving event. Similarly, a conventional concealer applied to the under-eye area (e.g., to hide dark or discolored areas) may not provide sufficient coverage for more than 24 hours due to the relatively high amount of sebum found on the face of a person and/or the increased amount of contact due to, for example, rubbing, scratching, and donning and removing glasses.
Formulators have attempted to improve the wear and longevity drawbacks of conventional concealers by including a tackifier in the composition. Tackifiers are generally recognized as chemical compounds commonly used in formulating adhesives to increase the tack or stickiness of the surface of the adhesive. While the addition of a tackifier may improve the resistance of a concealer or foundation to sebum or abrasion, it may also undesirably impact its feel. Adding a tackifier to a formulation tends to impart tackiness or stickiness to the composition, which users may find undesirable during application and/or wear. For example, a foundation that includes a tackifier may be difficult to spread on the face. In some instances, the increased tackiness of a foundation or concealer may cause debris (e.g., dust, dirt or similar contaminants) to stick to the skin surface where the makeup is present, which is typically undesirable. While makeup contamination is generally undesirable, it may be even more problematic for a foundation since it is applied to the entire face.
It is well known that some people simply do not like their skin to feel sticky, especially the skin on or around their face. Since concealers are sometimes used to cover blemishes on the face (e.g., under-eye area, age spot), tackifiers still be need to be used judiciously to help avoid negative perceptions of the concealer by consumers. Thus, even when tackifiers are added to conventional concealers, they are typically only present at a level of less than 15%, and even more typically at from 3-7%. Adding the tackifier at such relatively low levels may reduce stickiness, but it also limits the amount of resistance to sebum and abrasion that the tackifier is able to provide.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a concealer product that can withstand the environmental insults typically faced by such a product when in use for more than twenty-four hours. It would also be desirable to provide a concealer or foundation that exhibits good abrasion resistance. It would further be desirable to provide a semi-permanent concealer product in the form of an anhydrous dispersion.